


Dean Winchester sucks at braiding

by ArielAquarial



Series: Family of Three [8]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe, Brotherly Love, Castiel is Claire Novak's Parent, Domestic, Domestic Fluff, M/M, Mechanic Dean Winchester, Professor Castiel, Struggling Dean Winchester, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-25
Updated: 2018-11-25
Packaged: 2019-08-29 12:13:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16743796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArielAquarial/pseuds/ArielAquarial
Summary: How a braid, some Youtube videos, and tomato soup all led to those three words being said.





	Dean Winchester sucks at braiding

Dean knew the moment he woke up that something wasn’t right. Nothing was horribly wrong, that definitely wasn’t the feeling he was getting, something was just…different. Off. His eyes fluttered open, and adjusted to the darkness. Had a noise roused him? He strained his ears to pick up any faint noises coming from the house. After a few minutes of hearing nothing, he shook his head and snuggled back into Cas’s arms. He had always been a light sleeper, and Claire had probably made a noise in her sleep. She did that sometimes, in the middle of the night long after they’d gone to bed. Every once in a while she’d get a coughing fit that startled him awake, or maybe even let out a particularly loud snore, but when he’d go and check on her she would be fine. Maybe a branch whacked the window or something. He let his eyes slip shut and his hand gently ran down the length of Cas’s back.

It was just before he was about to drift back to sleep that his eyes snapped back open. Suddenly, he knew why he woke up.

He shifted backwards, putting some space between him and his boyfriend. Cas had been upfront about it in the beginning…he didn’t cuddle. Well, he did…just not in his sleep. They cuddled on the couch all of the time, and even those minutes after they both climbed under Cas’s comforter were spent in each others arms. The minute Cas started getting sleepy, though, he always rolled over onto his own side of the bed and fell to sleep. He always said he didn’t like the weight on him while he slept, and Dean supposed he understood that- couldn’t relate, but understood.

This night though, at- he glanced at the clock- 2:15am, Cas was curled towards Dean. Their legs tangled under the comforter, and Cas’s head was tucked into Deans shoulder. Dean was abut to smile and consider it good luck, when he realized exactly how warm Cas was. The man was usually the one with the icy hands and feet, so to feel Cas sticky with sweat was a bit of a shock. He pulled his hand out from under Cas’s arms and placed it on his forehead. The man was burning up.

The movement jarred Cas enough to wake him up. He immediately let out a whole body shiver and a mournful groan. “Dean…”

“I’m here, baby.” Dean murmured, brushing Cas’s sweaty locks off of his forehead. “You ok?”

Cas snuggled even deeper into Dean, tightening his arms around Deans waist. “No…”

Dean huffed at the gravely quality of Deans voice. “You don’t sound too good.”

“I feel like shit…” he admitted quietly. “Can you grab me the thermometer? Its in the first aid kit…”

“Sure, babe.” He leaned in and placed a kiss on Cas’s forehead, and frowned at the heat that met his lips. Cas was definitely sick, and if he was right, was probably going to have to stay home from work. Cas was _not_ going to like that. “I’ll be right back.”

He waited until he was out of the bedroom before shutting the door and flipping on the hall light. The first aid kit had been moved from the bathroom to Claire’s room a few days ago when she gave herself a paper cut, and neither of them ever got around to moving it back, so he had to sneak into her room and grab it off of her dresser. Taking a peak past her “princess curtain” (the pink mesh canopy that enclosed her bed at night), he could see that she was sleeping soundly. He took a moment to adjust her blankets, both comforter and flat sheet a bright pink like her canopy, so that they were no longer under her legs, and gave her a quick kiss on the forehead before heading back to the bedroom.

Cas had kicked off the blankets and spread out in Deans absence, and Dean would have mistaken him for sleeping if his hands weren’t flexing in the bedsheet as he shifted uncomfortably. From the scowl on Cas’s face, he could tell he was in a lot of pain. He sat down on the corner of the bed and took a moment to wipe the thermometer with an alcohol wipe before handing it to Cas. “Here ya go. Do you want me to get you some ibuprofen? It might help.”

He nodded, and by the time Dean had returned with a glass of water, Cas was glaring at the device. “It says I’m sick.” He grumbled.

Dean held back a smile. “Well, you look like shit, so…”

Cas turned his glare towards Dean, but it had lost its effect long ago. Nowadays, Cas’s glare did nothing but get his blood pimping with want. Now, though, definitely wasn’t the time for that. “Thank you for the sympathy.”

“You’re going to have to cancel class.” Dean murmured quietly, ignoring Cas’s comment. “No way you can go with a fever of…” he snatched the thermometer out of Cas’s hand. “102.1? Shit, Cas. Drink the water, babe. Do you need anything? Tea? Some tums? Pepto-Bismol?”

Cas sighed heavily and attempted to sit, but the moment he was upright, his face drained of color. With no warning, Cas got to his feet and rushed to the bathroom. Within seconds, the sound of retching could be heard. Dean flinched and put the glass down before following Cas to the bathroom so he could help the man out.

Once Cas emptied his stomach, Dean helped him through brushing his teeth and shuffling back to the bed. “You gotta cancel your classes for today, babe. No way you can go to work like this…”

“Can’t.” he groaned. “The students have a paper due next week…they need this lecture.”

“And I’m sure the kids would love a day off so they can get started on that paper a day early…”

He shook his head. “If I don’t go, it will throw the whole syllabus off…”

“There’s your answer! They have the syllabus, they can see what they’re supposed to be studying.” Dean rubbed at Cas’s back. “All of your PowerPoints are online, Cas. They’ll be fine.”

“You’re making it difficult to argue.”

“Wow, you must be _really_ sick if you cant argue with me…” He joked. “Listen, babe…they’re big boys and girls, I’m sure they are responsible enough to teach themselves just this once. And if they’re not, then they deserve to get an F on that paper.”

Cas let out a huff. “What about Claire?”

“I can get her up and out, don’t worry.” Dean reached over Cas, careful not to put any of his weight on him, and grabbed his phone from where it was charging on the side table. “I’ll dim the screen as low as I can, but you need to email your classes and the department head.”

Cas reached blindly for his phone, and Dean placed it into his hand. “You sure you can get Claire to school?”

Dean scoffed. “Of course.”

Cas only took a few minutes to write out an email, hit send, and make hundreds of kids dreams come true. Dean took the phone back and turned off Cas’s 6:30am alarm before setting an alarm on his own phone for 7. Claire could be at her school as early as 6:30am, since it was a day care, but the instruction portion didn’t officially start until 8:30am. If he woke up at 7am, he could easily have both himself and Claire out of the house by 8am and get there in plenty of time to drop her off and get to the garage.

o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o

The minute the alarm went off, Dean jumped to stop it. Cas, who was snoring gently from beside him, didn’t even flinch at the sound. He rolled towards Cas and gently placed his hand on Cas’s forehead. Still too warm. He sighed and decided to come back to check on the man when he had his lunch break. Gotta make sure his boyfriend ate something after all…

He took a few moments to pull his clothes on before he made his way to the kitchen. Normally, Dean was the one to make breakfast for everyone while Cas got Claire up and ready, so going straight to the kitchen wasn’t anything new. Now, on the other hand, he had to keep an eye on the clock. Claire loved oatmeal and fruit for breakfast, but oatmeal took forever to cool down, so he figured he’d make the oatmeal, get her up and dressed so it had time to cool, make his breakfast while she ate, and then get her hair done and teeth brushed. If all went well, he would be out by 8am and have plenty of time to get to work after dropping her off.

After the oatmeal had thickened, he poured it into a bowl and tossed the saucepan into the sink to soak. No way was he gonna let that shit dry and have to scrub it out later. If Dean was going to take care of everything today, then he was going to make things as easy for himself as he could.

When he got to Claire’s room, he went straight to the curtains and opened them to let the sun in. Claire was fast asleep, not even flinching when the bright morning light hit her closed lids. He took a moment to watch her sleep. Her arm was stretched over her head, and the other was curled up under her face, squishing her cheek towards her nose. Her lips were parted and a little puddle of drool darkened her pillowcase. She was adorable and Dean couldn’t keep the smile off of his face even if he tried.

“Claire…” he called quietly, swiping some hair off of her forehead. When she didn’t respond, he put his hand on her shoulder and gave it a little nudge. “Claire.”

She snorted indelicately and rolled onto her back, her mouth smacking a few times.

He nudged her again. “Claire-bear, its time to get up.”

“Daddy?” She mumbled, her eyes cracking open before she fisted the sleep out of her eyes.

“Nope, its Dean.” He corrected. “Daddy is sick right now and is sleeping.”

“I’m so tired.” She whined. With a grunt, she rolled over onto her stomach and pulled the blankets up and over her head.

“Claire.” He warned. “You have to get ready for school.”

“I don’t want to go to school.”

He had to bite his lip so he wouldn’t laugh out loud. She was already such a teenager. “But Claire…You get to drive with me today! Isn’t that awesome?”

That perked her up, and she rolled over so she could stare at him with squinted eyes. “I gets ta go in baby?”

He laughed. “You got that right, kid.”

“Yay!” she sat up and threw off her blankets. “I like baby.”

“That’s my girl!” He went to her dresser and began searching for clothes. Socks, panties, her favorite unicorn overalls, and a long sleeved shirt all got pulled out and placed on her pillow. “Do you need help getting dressed?”

“No. I can do it.” She began unbuttoning her pajama top and then paused once she caught his eye. “Can I gets some privacy?”

Dean snorted in amusement, but turned to walk out the door. “I have your oatmeal on the table when you’re done. Oh, and don’t forget to take off your diaper _before_ you put the panties on.”

“I know.” She whined as he clicked the door shut.

Back in the kitchen, he gave her oatmeal a stir and began on his eggs and bacon. By the time he had fried himself up a few pieces of bacon, Claire was shuffling her socked feet into the kitchen and depositing herself on a bar stool. “Can I have my oatmeal?”

“Yeah, sweetie.” He placed the breakfast in front of her and slid her a spoon. “Do you want peanut butter inside your oatmeal?”

She shook her head and licked the yogurt off of the underside of the lid. “No, can I have da freezer blueberries?”

He walked over to the freezer to check if they still had them, and found the bag easily. “Sure. It will cool it down the rest of the way, right?”

She nodded and mixed her oatmeal sloppily, slopping a bit onto the table. “Thank you.”

He dropped a handful of frozen blueberries into her steaming oatmeal and gave it all a good mix. “Make sure you eat all of it, ok?”

“And den we have ta go, right?” she asked, already digging into her breakfast.

He cracked his eggs into the pan and grabbed a piece of bacon to munch on while he waited. “Yeah. I’ll pick you up after school, too.”

“Can I still give daddy hugs and kisses?”

“Of course, kiddo.” He rumpled the hair on top of her head affectionately. “We just cant wake him up, so maybe just a kiss on his cheek.”

With his egg done, he checked on his watch and they still had twenty minutes before they had to go. Just enough time to finish his breakfast, brush their teeth, and comb Claire’s hair. When they both finished, they put their bowls into the sink and made their way into the bathroom.

“Daddy fixes my hair when I brush my teef.” She reached for her toothbrush and squeezed way too much toothpaste onto it. “Daddy gives me a ponytail.”

“Oh, yeah?” Dean asked, searching through the drawers under the sink until he found a pink brush and a hair tie. “Well, if daddy does it…then I guess I have to.”

Her hair was an absolute mess. Dean had to take a literal step back and take stock of what was in front of him. Knots everywhere. Not just little tangles that he could brush out easily, but a few sections were so tangled that her hair had puffed out around it. Starting at the bottom was key, he knew, to get the tangles out…but he was terrified that he’d be taking out a chunk of hair before he was done. Claire was oblivious to his panic, brushing away and drooling toothpaste down her chin.

Tentatively, he began brushing softly, afraid he would hurt her, and slowly started to gain confidence. She grunted and pointed to the sink, so Dean held her hair out of the way so she could spit. “Does your hair _need_ to be up?”

She nodded. “Daddy always ties my hair up.” She confirmed, wiping her mouth with a washcloth. “You don’t have ta…but Daddy does.”

Dean glanced at her hair and bit his lip. “I’m gonna try.”

He took her brush and scooped the back of her hair into his hand. With his other hand, he started at her forehead and began brushing her hair back. As soon as he opened his fingers for the rest of the hair, half of it fell out of his hand an fanned toward her face. With a frown, he took the brush and repeated the motions, pulling the newly loose hair back towards the hair tie. Again, more hair fell out. Again and again, he brushed her hair towards the tie until it began looking a little better. With a triumphant smirk, Dean began twisting the hair tie and securing her hair tightly. When he finally pulled away, he sighed in annoyance. Bumps and frizz and loose pieces everywhere. It looked like she just woke up from a damn nap. “Uh…”

“Its beautiful!” Claire said with a smile.

He smiled at her in return. “Thanks, Claire, but you don’t gotta make me feel better.”

“No!” she continued and patted the top of her hair, making even more hair fall out. “Its nice!”

“I can do a braid…” He offered, nudging the floppy mess. Dean knew he couldn’t send her to school like that.

She nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah! I like braids!”

The braid went slightly better in the sense that it actually resembled a braid, but it wasn’t much better than the pony tail. By the time he had finished, they had to leave and there was no time to try something else.

Work seemed to drag that morning. He had sent out a text to Cas right when he got to work, letting the man know that the morning had went well and Claire had been dropped off at school with no problem. Cas had replied with a single “K” more than two hours later, and Dean had frowned with worry. To see Cas reduced to a single letter reply meant that he probably wasn’t doing well. Near death status, in Deans opinion.

When his lunch break finally started, he took off to the grocery store. Having spent most of the week at Cas’s house, he had mentally catalogued exactly what was in the pantry so he knew Cas was low on chicken broth, and he also needed to grab a few fresh tomatoes for his soup. After he went through the checkout, he booked it to Cas’s and let himself in.

He found Cas still in bed, his body curled up and his dark hair a mess on the pillow. Dean approached him quietly and put the back of his hand on the mans forehead. Still too warm. He sighed and went back out to the kitchen so he could get started on the soup. Although he hated the thought of using a slow cooker, but he knew it was the best option for the soup. Normally, he would cook it on the stovetop so he could get the texture of the rice just right, but he wanted Cas to have soup on hand whenever he woke up. With a hearty sigh, Dean dumped the ingredients into the slow cooker and set it on high for two hours. The rice would get mushy, but at least Cas would have something to eat when he finally got up.

Dean glanced down at his watch. Fuck. His 40 minute lunch was over in 10. With one last glance towards where Cas was sleeping in the bedroom, Dean hurried out of the house and back to work.

o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o

Claire looked awful. No. Actually…she was fuckin adorable. Her hair, though? A fucking mess. God, he felt embarrassed as he walked her past the front desk and out of the daycare. He _knew_ that he had done a pretty shitty job on the braid that morning, but to open the door to room 8 and immediately be able to locate the kid out of a group of about 13 children because of her hair? Well, it was pretty telling. It was only by the grace of god that that hair tie was still hanging in there, or maybe it was the giant knot in the back of her head…either way, the damn thing was just dangling there, swaying with every step she took.

There was absolutely no braid left and it made Dean feel horrible. He knew Claire didn’t care, but _he_ cared. If he was going to step in and be a second dad for Claire, then he wanted to be able to take care of her. Cas was a damn wizard with her hair. While Dean made the coffee and breakfast for the three of them, Cas was always the one who got Claire ready and whenever she walked out of the bathroom she had her hair tied back perfectly with a cute little bow to top it all off.

He knew that he had to step up his game. Claire probably wouldn’t care, but he did. That meant only one thing. As soon as he buckled Claire into her car seat, he lowered himself into his seat and with a deep breath, took out his phone to make a phone call.

The phone rang twice before it was answered.

“Hey Dean!” Jess greeted. “You know, I was just thinking about you!”

“I don’t blame you, Jess.” He smirked into the phone. “Have you finally come to your senses and realized I’m the better Winchester? Because I’ve got to tell you…that ship has sailed. I’m in a committed relationship, now…and Cas is a jealous man.”

“No way, Dean. There’s a reason I chose Sam, Dean. A big, _long,_ reason.” She finished off suggestively.

He made a gagging noise. “Spare me.”

Jess laughed into the phone. “What is it I can do for you?”

Dean glanced at Claire through his rearview mirror and swallowed his pride. “Could you, uh…show me how to fix hair?”

She was silent for a minute. “Fix hair?”

He rubbed at the bridge of his nose. “Yeah. I had to do Claire’s hair this morning, and it didn’t turn out so well.”

She let out a breath. “Sorry to break it to you, but I don’t do Emma’s hair. That’s all Sam. I leave at 5:30 so I can get to the hospital. He’s the one who gets her up and off to daycare.”

Dean hissed out a curse, his eyes immediately flying to the mirror to see if Claire was paying attention. Thankfully, she was occupied with a toy car that Dean kept in the back seats just for her, so she hadn’t been paying attention. If she got home and started repeating some of the things Dean said, Cas would kill him. “Sam does it all?”

“Yeah. He’s a regular Mr. Mom.” She laughed. “Here…Sam is in the other room, I’ll put you on speaker so you can ask him your question.”

“No!” he tried, but it was too late.

He heard the call quality change and suddenly Jess was talking again. “Hey baby, I have Dean on speaker. He has a question for you.”

“I really don’t…” he mumbled. “Right Claire? We don’t have time to talk to Sammy?”

Claire perked up from the back seat. “Its ok! Hi Sammy!”

“Hey Claire!” Sammy’s voice shouted back.

“Traitor.” He mumbled. “Hey Sammy.”

“Jess said you had a question?”

Dean took a deep breath and considered his options. Either way, he was screwed. If he chickened out, then Jess would fill Sam in and they’d have a good laugh at his expense. Tell the truth and admit he needed help, and Sam would still laugh at him. At least if he told Sam himself, the man would say it all to his face. “Jess tells me you do Emma’s hair, is that right?”

“Yeah. Jess’s work schedule sucks, so I have to do it.”

He couldn’t help but throw in at least one dig. “Had lots of practice on your own flowing locks, right?”

“Sam!” Claire yelled from the back seat, cutting off whatever Sam had been about to say in his defense. He glanced back to see her leaning as far forward as the seatbelt would allow. “Can I play wif Emma?”

“Of course, Claire!” he replied enthusiastically. “I’ll call your dad later, ok? We’ll set something up.”

“Actually…” he gave Claire a wink. “I’ll call her Dad. He’s down with the flu today, and he’d probably appreciate the quiet. Can we come over now?”

“Sure. Is that why you called?” he asked.

“Nope, but we’ll talk about that when I get there.”

Dean said goodbye to his brother and called Cas.

“Hello?” He croaked through the phone.

“Daddy!” Claire yelled. “I’m in baby with Dean!”

“Is that right, Claire-bear?” he rasped. “Sounds like fun.”

“It is! Dean says I can go to Sammy’s!”

“If that’s ok with you, babe.” He interrupted before the kid could get him in trouble. “That’s why we called.”

“Of course that’s ok.”

Dean smiled. It was always a bit of a surprise when Cas trusted him to go off and do things with Claire. It was something he would definitely never take for granted. “Thanks, babe. Did you have any of the soup?”

“I was able to eat a little when I woke up around 2. I’m hoping I can have a bit more for dinner.”

Dean looked a the clock on baby’s dash. “Well, its 3:30 right now…if you can hold off until 6, we can have dinner with you. You think you’ll be up for it?”

“Yes, I think so.” He answered after a pause. “I haven’t thrown up since this morning, and although I’m feeling a bit better, I think my body would appreciate a bit more rest. Thank you for volunteering to take care of her for the day.”

He scoffed. “Come on, Cas. I’d take her all week if you’d let me.” He reached back and squeezed Claire’s knee. “Isn’t that right, booger breath? You wanna go on a road trip with me?”

She shrieked in offence. “I don’t have booger breaf!”

“See?” he asked Cas with a smile. “She loves hanging out with me.”

“Of course she does, Dean.” The soft fondness in Cas’s voice make him warm inside. “Please call me before you return so I can make sure I’m presentable for her. I wouldn’t want to distress her, after all. I’m sure I look horrible.”

“You could never look horrible.” He heard Cas let out a breathy laugh on the other end. “But ok, if that’s what you want…”

“Thank you, Dean.”

Dean shoved the phone closer to Claire. “Tell daddy you love him.”

“Love you daddy!” She yelled with a laugh. “I’m going to go play with Emma!”

“Have fun, little love.”

“See ya later, Cas. Get lots of rest!”

After they said their goodbyes, Dean pocketed his phone and finally pulled out into traffic. “So, sweetie…How was school today?”

o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o

Dean watched Claire and Emma devour a bowl of hummus, double dipping their carrot sticks like there was no tomorrow. Jess hovered in the kitchen, supplying them both with water and apple slices. “So…”

“I’m sure whatever it is you want isn’t bad.” He lifted an eyebrow. “I can see you freaking yourself out.”

Dean grumbled to himself. “Shut up.”

“Does that have to do with hair? You asked a question on the phone that you never followed up on, so…” his hazel eyes glanced to Claire and then back to Dean. “Did you do her hair this morning?”

Dean shrugged, watching the kids as they interacted.

“Because if that’s Cas’s work…” he shook his head. “He really must have been sick.”

“It was me.” Dean admitted. “I might have…struggled.”

Now Sam was smiling. “That was you? What were you trying to do, then?”

“There _was_ a braid this morning.” He snapped, rubbing his hand down his face in exasperation.

“And let me guess…by the time you picked her up it was long gone...”

“I don’t know what happened.” He sighed. “I tied it tight.”

Sam nodded. “Yeah. That happens sometimes. Naptime can be a hair killer.”

“So you’re gonna help me right?”

Sam smirked. “I don’t recall you asking me to help you, Dean. You’re going to have to ask nicely.”

Dean punched him in the arm, muttering under his breath. “Bitch.”

Sam rubbed at his arm and glared at Dean. “I can say no, you know…”

“I practically raised you, Sammy.” He reminded the kid.

Sam scoffed. “Did mom die when I was a baby and I imagined a blonde woman who fed and clothed me? No you didn’t. You sure as hell didn’t raise me, and thank god for that. I remember some of your kitchen experiments. If you had raised me I would have died of starvation...”

Dean finally broke into a smile. “I know. But still…who gave you the birds and bees talk? You owe me.”

Sam barked out a laugh. “I don’t remember ever asking for that talk, Dean. If I remember correctly, you cornered me in the bathroom and made me listen to it because I borrowed your leather jacket without asking.”

Dean nodded with pride. “Hell yeah, and you never took my shit again.”

“I was traumatized, Dean.”

“Ok!” Dean had to take a few breaths before he could continue through his laughter. “Fine. I’m sorry. Can you please show me how to do Claire’s hair?”

Sam shook his head, but he was smiling. “Fine, jerk…”

“Thanks bitch.”

“Hey, ladies?” Sam sing-songed, gaining their attention. “You two want to have a hair party?”

In true Claire fashion, without even knowing what a hair party was, Claire clapped her hands and yelled “Hair party!”. Emma, on the other hand, frowned and crossed her arms. “Wassa hair party?”

“Uncle Dean and I are going to do your hair all pretty, ok?”

Emma nodded, a crease between her pale eyebrows.

“Can I have princess hair?” Claire ran over and jumped into Deans lap. “I wanna have princess hair.”

Dean looked over at his brother. “What’s princess hair look like?”

Sam shrugged and leaned towards Dean, pitching his voice low so the girls couldn’t hear him. “I don’t think it means anything. Just tell her its princess hair when your done and she’ll believe you.”

By the time 6pm rolled around, Dean’s head was hurting from the sheer amount of information what had been shoved into his head in the space of 90 minutes. Detangling spray was the key, he learned, for any hairstyle. Not only did it get rid of some of those monster knots that Claire loved to wake up with, but it also helped keep the hair smooth and bump free when tying the hair up. Headbands were useful in covering up any mistakes, and in preventing baby hairs from making them look like they stuck their fingers into light sockets. Bow clips could be used in the same way bobby pins helped secure anything that escaped the tie in the process. The brushing pattern mattered too. Start on the underside, brushing the hair to the height you wanted the pony to sit, and then brush the top and sides into your hand. Top, sides, back to the bottom. Top, sides, and then back to the bottom. Over and over until it was smooth. Then, use the hair tie and pray that it still looked decent when all was done. If not, shove a bow clip in there and pretend that was the plan from the beginning.

The second thing he learned was the world of YouTube hair tutorials. God, there was a lot of them. Dean just couldn’t believe some people made a living fixing their kids hair on video for strangers to copy. He learned right away who was actually useful, and who wasn’t. Some people assumed that you already knew how to do hair, and showed only the minimum, expecting you to pick it up as you go. He didn’t like those ones. The videos that treated you like you didn’t even know how a hairbrush worked? Those were fucking awesome. By the time they had to leave, Dean had Claire’s hair in a French braid. An actual, halfway decent, French braid. Sam had excitedly started babbling on about Dutch braids, but once Dean learned you had to go under for those instead of over, he told his brother to fuck off. There was no way he was learning that until he could French braid like a damn master.

One hug later, and a hissed “No one better find out about this…”, Claire and Dean were on their way back to the house so they could have dinner with Cas.

“…and den she put the braid around the head and I want you to do dat one next. Can we have a hair party tomorrow after school? I want to do it wif Emma again, cuz her daddy Sammy made a pretty space buns. Emma says that her daddy does it for school, but my daddy only does pony tails…can you show him the braid and space buns? I tink he’ll like the French braid cuz its like Elsa’s hair. Anna has two of dem, so next time I want one here and here. Ok? So tomorrow, when I go to school, I’m gonna show Olivia-”

“No school tomorrow, sweetie.” He reminded her.

“and shes going to think its sooo pretty. Den you can show her daddy how to do it and she can come to the next time we have a hair party. We can be twins wif the braids, I think…”

She finally paused to take a breath and Dean took the opportunity to insert himself into the one sided conversation. “You ready to surprise Daddy? He’s going to think you look just like a princess.”

She gasped. “He’s gonna be so surprised!”

He climbed out of his car and walked over to her door, giving the window a rap with his knuckle so she knew to get out on her own. The heavy door creaked when she pushed, and as soon as she jumped to the ground, he slammed the door shut for her. “We’ll have to show him that braid video, right? Then he can learn it too.”

“No!” She smiled up at him and reached for his hand “I want you ta do it now. Your better than daddy.”

“Uh-oh…” Dean muttered, glancing between her and the door. Cas was going to kill him. “He always does your hair, sweetie. He can learn this one really quick, I promise.”

“But you do it so good!” She argued. “And you sing Hey Jude better too.”

“I’m in so much trouble.” He let out a small groan, but covered it up with a smile when Claire glanced up at him in curiosity. “Daddy is amazing, isn’t he? He gets you ready for school, and he bought you that fish tank last month, remember? And he…us…he cooks you your favorite foods…” they reached the door and Dean fumbled with his keys as he tried to think of more things that Claire would actually understand. “And he bought you that butterfly shirt. He’s the best, ok? I’m super cool, but he’s the best.”

She nodded and walked in when he finally got the door open. Immediately, she yelled for Cas. “Daddy! I’m home!”

“I’ll be out in a second, Claire-bear!” he called back roughly.

“Lets surprise him, ok?”

She pointed to a throw blanket that was sitting rumpled on the couch. “I’ll put that on my head so he cant see me.”

He shot out a hand and grabbed her shoulder as she began to run off. There was no chance in hell he’d let her ruin all of his hard work like that. “Get behind me.”

Claire let out an excited squeal and scrambled to get behind him, pulling the back of his flannel up and over her head, and wrapping her hands around his hips. He glanced down between his legs and he could clearly see her sparkly shoed feet jumping up and down in excitement. “Good job, sweetie. He wont even know you’re here.”

Cas, looking like death warmed over, choose that time to shuffle into the living room, a blanket thrown abound his shoulders and thick fuzzy socks warming his feet. The loose shirt and baggy gray sweatpants did little to improve his appearance, and made a pang of sympathy go through Dean. His eyes were bloodshot, like he had just woken up, and Dean’s traitorous brain choose that moment to remind himself that he was supposed to call Cas before he came over. “Oh, babe…”

Cas smiled weekly, glancing Dean and huffing in amusement. “Oh no! Did you forget Claire at Sam’s?”

Claire pushed her head into his back and giggled loudly.

“Dang, Cas. I think I did.” He threw his hands into the air dramatically. “We’ll have to go and get her tomorrow.”

“In the meantime, I’ll have to give you plenty of kisses since she’s not here to complain.”

“Yucky!” she shouted.

“Did you hear that?” Cas asked.

“Nope. Didn’t hear anything.” He took a step forward, and Claire scrambled to stay plastered to his back. “Better come over and give me those kisses.”

“I’m going to hive you lots of kisses right now…” Cas threatened. His tired body shuffled forward, a large smile on his full lips.

“No!” Claire yelled, jumping out from behind Dean’s back. “No yucky kisses!”

Cas stepped back and mimicked shock. “But you love my yucky kisses!”

She pouted. “Only sometimes.”

Cas leaned down and cupped her face. “What’s this?” He fingered the end of her braid. “Who did this?”

“Dean!” she replied excitedly, patting her head proudly. “I want him to do my hair like dis everyday!”

Dean grimaced. It was coming…Cas was going to get on his case for tying to replace him. “I’m sorry, Cas.”

“Are you kidding me?” A hand touched his cheek, gently directing him to look up at Cas. “This is great.”

“It is?” Dean asked.

“Of course.” Cas reassured him, stroking Deans stubble affectionately. “This means that I can sleep in and you can get Claire ready in the morning.”

Dean snorted loudly, his heart filling with joy at the amazing man he somehow tricked into being his boyfriend. “Yeah, right. Nice try, babe.”

“Right, Claire?” Cas turned his attention to Claire. “Wouldn’t you love it if Dean got you ready in the mornings?”

She nodded. “Yeah! And he can do da braid!”

Dean opened his mouth to make a joke about spending the night a lot less if he was going to have to do all of the work, but he stopped himself, unwilling to even joke about spending even one minute less with his two favorite people. Instead, he smirked cockily at Cas. “Don’t even think about sleeping in without me.”

“Can you go wash your hands, Claire? Were about to eat.” Cas watched as she left the room, and then brought his attention back to Dean. “I want to kiss you right now…”

Dean took a step closer. “Do it then.”

“I don’t want to give you what I have…” Cas admitted, a pinched look on his face. “I really wish I wasn’t sick right now…”

“Me too.” Dean admitted. God, he wanted to kiss Cas so bad, but both off them couldn’t get sick. Who would take care of Claire?

“Did you learn how to do her hair while you two were gone?”

He blushed. “Yeah…we watched YouTube videos at Sam’s house.”

“Thank you, Dean.” Cas wrapped his arms around Dean and dropped his head onto his shoulder. “That means a lot to me…”

Dean smiled and pulled Cas gently closer to himself. “I just wanted to be able to take care of her…”

“You did this for her?” He pulled back a bit and looked into Deans eyes.

“Well yeah! Claire is amazing, you know? I want to be able to help you out with…whatever.” Dean feigned nonchalance with a shrug. “Its just…I love that little girl and want to be there for her and-”

“You love her?” Cas interrupted.

Dean was sure he was red as a tomato. “Well, yeah.”

Cas bit his lip. “She loves you too.”

“She does?” his face was split with a grin.

“Yes.” Cas confirmed. “And so do I.”

Dean stared at him for a moment, slack jawed with shock. “You love me?”

Cas smiled gently at him. “Yes, Dean…I love you.”

Dean dove in for a kiss, gentle and chaste. Cas pulled away after a moment. “But I’m sick.” He whined.

“Who gives a fuck?” he asked. “Get back over here, Cas. I love you too.”

Cas fisted the back of Deans shirt and pulled him into another kiss, sighing happily when their lips met. Between the smiles, and occasional huff of laughter, it wasn’t their best make out session. Despite that, Deans heart soared with joy.

“Ew!” Claire shouted, interrupting their kiss. “Yucky kisses!”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Leave a comment and show some love!


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